Thursday, May 14, 2009

I like that even though he toys with abstract/absurd images, he still manages to achieve some sense of realism and poignancy. After stalking him on Vimeo , I've come up with a list of MUST-SEEs for all you bored internet fiends. First, ????? (my favorite) a clip from a previous film collaboration.

Yes, that is Walt Disney's head. Yes, you can have one of your very own. Take up OReilly's challenge and create something fun out of it. (Download-3D WALT DISNEY HEAD.)

Next, Please Say Something is a short film about a cat and mouse in a "troubled relationship." This has been winning all kinds of awards (Golden Bear at 2009 Berlinale, Best German film at Oberhausen). I love the way he uses sound in this short- he seems to channel everything I love about David Lynch.

There's also Son of Rambow - an episodic depiction of how a young illustrator sees the world, Floaters - a short starring the bio- debris that floats around in your eyeball jelly (is that awesome or WHAT?), BANG - some explosive graphics for an M.I.A song, which apparently COME OUT OF THE SCREEN AND SHOOT YOU if you wear 3-d glasses, Identity - is his logo a pooping dog or a flying duck? The world may never know!, and his iPhone app of a kitty hologram.

You can follow David on Twitter or go to his website for more info/works/stuff.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Woke up around ten with the SUN ACTUALLY SHINING (huzzah!) so we ran down immediately to the beach (and stayed there till... now.) Cracked open a Corona and started rereading Fear and Loathing. It's been my first summer pleasure read three years in a row, which I figure by now can be considered a tradition. But that actually didn't last too long- sitting thisclose to the ocean and hearing its alluring roar called me away. We caught some hella sweet waves man- like totally- alternating between kayaking, body-boarding, and free floating. At first the lifeguard wouldn't let us take the equipment out because of the red hazard flags that were flying, but when he admitted that the flags were just waiting to be changed from yesterday's madness, I think he realized he couldn't stop us. We're persistent. And sneaky.

Despite the crashing waves, there was a fisherman out about waist-deep in water, just chillin' with his pole. Trying to be friendly I asked him if he'd been seeing many fish today, to which he responded "Yep, and wherever there are fish, the sharks follow. Oh, but don't worry or nothin' thems just the small ones." Oh, pleasant. This didn't actually freak me out much until we kayaked out near the sandbar and then completely ATE IT when a wave crested on our boat. I thought it would be fun idea to swim back to shore, but all I could picture beneath the deep emerald waves were hungry marine animals, circling, just biding their time.

Other than that, I bought a mango habanero hot sauce (advertised as 100% pure pain!) in a specialty store and Peter fucked a pig. Great day, this was.

Monday, May 4, 2009

I have some downtime for the moment so here goes a short documentaiton of the flawrida road trip thus far. First, highlights of the 10 hour drive:-In Baton Rouge, Abhinav's GPS system, Alfred, decided to use private driveways, back alleys and condominium parking lots as "roads" to lead us through the ghetto to a restaurant. Of course, at the end of the journey, there was a construction fence separating us from our destination.-Later, in Alabama, we got pulled over for "swerving" by some profiling cop who really just wanted an excuse to question this dark foreigner sporting out-of-state plates and white girl in the passenger seat. We'd been making jokes about this possibility the entire way there, but the fact that it actually happened: priceless.

By the time we got to the condo at 12:57am(Alfred had projected 1:13. HA! We showed him.) every one had already fallen asleep. But honestly, being welcomed by a fridge stuffed full of beer and cheese was good enough.

Next day, I wake up to natural light and the sound of the ocean... heaven. After an amazing breakfast at Waffle House followed by some Krispy Kreme minis, we split into two groups: the girls (sans me) ran off to take advantage of the desperate outlet malls' sales, and the rest of us decided to make like beached whales and head straight for the sand. Unfortunately (as the title of this post has already hinted) there was no sunshine in sight, only a thick misty fog blanketing the beach for miles. This is where the fun comes in: terrible laying-out-on-the-beach weather makes for fantastic fucking-massive-waves. Kayaking attempts failed for the most part, so we turned to body-boarding and the old-school childhood method of entertainment- jumping into breaking waves. I forget how much I like real beaches. Living 45 minutes away from the murky, (and no doubt disease infested) waters of Galveston beach you quickly learn that there are more safe and entertaining ways to die young.Anyhow, the awesome-waves soon turned too scary for even us reckless adolescents to crash. Now we're back inside watching Crowder play Zombie Nazis. I love summertime.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Now that school is FINALLY done interfereing with my music stalking abilities: here's something I seem to have missed in the past months...

Apparently ErolAlkan and his buddy Richard Norris (aka Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve) have putting out new albums without telling me! Unlike Erol's usual M.O. of high intensity club remix, this side-group demonstrates his mind-blowingelectro skillz taken off into another direction: experimental electro trip-hop (or whaever). The use of audio reminds me of The Avalanches and Lemon Jelly, but past that it's hard to really tie them down to a genre. Too bad I found this after finals, it’s the perfect study music: interesting enough to keep you awake, but not so much that it’s distracting. The good ol’ interwebz has sponsored the first album- Ark 1 and a neat 2007 DJ set they did if anyone is interested. I'm still searching for the Re-Animation, their remix compilation album, so till I actually find it, I'll just post the tracklist to drool over: